High yield one-pot synthesis of high density and low freezing point jet-fuel-ranged blending from bio-derived phenol and cyclopentanol

Synthesizing high performance jet fuel from biomass provides potential way to convert low-cost biomass to valuable fuels and meets the requirements of sustainable development. Here, we report a one-pot synthesis of high density and low freezing point jet-fuel-ranged blending from bio-derived phenol and cyclopentanol, which is with high yield, simple and low-cost for scale-up. With the co-presence of acid catalyst like H beta and metal catlayst like Pd/C, the alkylation first happens to produce bi-and tri-cyclic compounds under N-2 atomphere, then in H-2 atmosphere the remained reactant is partly hydrogenated and takes part in alkylation again to produce cyclic compounds, finally hydrodeoxygenation happens to convert all the compounds to cyclic hydrocarbons. A jet-fuel-blending containing bi- and tri-cyclic alkanes is obtained at high molar yield of 83.9% from the starting reactant, which shows high density of 0.89 g/mL, freezing point lower than -75 degrees C. Especially, the major component, i.e. cyclopentylcyclohexane shows much better low-temperature properties compared with reported hydrocarbons with similar molecular structure. This result provides a simple, low-cost way to synthesize high performance jet fuel from biomass. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.